Merchant Sales Podcast

"Hone in on automation and technology," explains Ben Griefer of Maverick Payments. This week's podcast also features tips for landing more sales from Rich Norton, and reporting from Patti on how card acceptance fees paid by U.S. merchants compare to fees paid by merchants in other countries.

Passion, not being afraid to fail, and making time for family, explains Vlad Sadovskiy, CEO at Netevia. Vlad a successful entrepreneur and his daughter, Emma, a budding entrepreneur, sit down with James for a far-reaching discussion around the changing complexion of entrepreneurship in this week's featured interview. Then stick around for more tips on selling from Rich Norton, and Patti's reportin...

Omni-channel payments are evolving—don’t get left behind. In this webinar, I share insights on terminal placement in an omni-channel market, alongside an interview with Mony Zenou, CEO of Dejavoo/iPOS. We discuss Dejavoo’s "POPUP" program, which offers discounts on new gateway-enabled devices, and explore key topics such as payment integration with POS systems, the pros and cons of gateway-enabled...

Building a restaurant point of sale portfolio in 2025 isn't going to get any easier for the lone wolf payments rep. In this webinar I discuss the role of the merchant sales agent in the restaurant POS project, how to successfully partner with a POS company, and what restaurant owners want in order to choose your solution over Toast. I am joined on this webinar by Saleem Khatri, CEO at Lavu. After...

Discover how AI is streamlining sales, approvals and customer service in this week's interview with Dave Fiegle, president of the AI Agency. Then James describes how he uses AI in his businesses, and Patti reports on how regulators are honing their focus on BNPL.

It's a sticky proposition, explains Alan Noe CEO at Evolv, in this week's featured interview. James continues on this theme, encouraging sales reps to think more broadly about building relationships that go beyond payments. And Patti wraps up the podcast, reporting on how the CFPB is taking issue with fees merchants charge for cash-back transactions.

In our recent webinar, we explored strategies to reduce friction in the sales process, increase the lifetime value of your clients, and boost payment processing margins by white-labeling your own gift card program. For those looking to create long-lasting relationships with merchants, regardless of the technology solutions they choose, it's crucial to control the gift cards and offer a flexible pr...

"If you build it right, buyers will come," explains Danny Mikhail in this week's featured interview. Mikhail built Zuza, a POS and business management software company, which he sold earlier this year to Bank of America. This week's podcast also features sales tips from Rich Norton and Patti's reporting on instant payment networks and fraud.

In this week's episode, James interviews David Morris about which payment methods are most important and how ISOs and ISVs should adjust their payment acceptance strategy. Then, we get a sales tip from Rich Norton and James finishes this episode with a special segment recorded a few days ago at his dinner with Green Payments on the future of the payments industry and how Agents and ISOs should foc...

In this week's episode we are joined by long time industry veteran and recruiter Chris Sandifer to discuss the history of the ISO model, how things have changed and what the future holds. We also discuss the keys to building a 1099 sales team and how to leverage technology in this effort. After this interview, James talks with Rich Norton about how to raise your floor and remove your ceiling for s...

In this week's episode, James shares his thoughts on a framework for effective strategy. You will learn how to identify, create and combine strategic puzzle pieces in the payments industry to create maximum value for yourself / your organization. Rich Norton gives a quick sales tip from the field and Patti Murphy shares a disruption to the growth of the BNPL space as card issuers begin to stop pay...

Your ISO should offer BNPL. "At the end of the day, it's all about stickiness," says Derek Barclay, CEO at Enable Inc., which offers ISOs a white-label approach to financing consumer purchases. Plus, another installment of sales tips from Rich Norton, and Patti's reporting on how consumers are embracing tap to pay.

"Building a great, profitable agent relationship is a lot like building a great friendship," explains Chris Del Grande, Co-Founder & President of Valued Merchant Services, in this week's featured interview. Then James discusses the value of finding and teaming up with the right business partners, and Patti reports on a Supreme Court ruling that deals a blow to the Fed over its debit interchange ca...

Learn how to offer Dual Pricing, Compliant Surcharging, Invoicing (email / text), subscriptions and so much more to card not present merchant types. In this event, James is joined by CTO and co-founder Jeff Rooney of Fluid Pay to discuss how to provide the right solutions to these merchants and how to do it in a way that is fully white labelled to promote your ISO brand.

"It's a new twist on a winning model that works especially well for restaurants," explains Alejandro Swaby, Director of Sales at Cervion. Plus, Patti reports on the ongoing legal fracas involving the card brands and merchants.

Learn strategies for successfully raising capital to grow your ISO from a panel of experts in this week's featured interview. Plus Patti reports on predictions for travel spending.

It's a new twist on an old strategy: merchants earning reward points for card payments processed. "We're seeing merchants who are wiling to sign long-term contracts," because of this type program, Jeff Moskowitz, Co-Founder of Tuzo Rewards explains in this week's featured interview. And stick around for more sales tips from Rich Norton and Patti's reporting on what's up with the Fed's planned debi...

That's what Dee Karawadra is hoping is the case for the CRM he's building at ImpactTechLab - a CRM ISOs can use to streamline operations, he explains. Plus get sales tips from merchant sales guru Rich Norton. And stick around for Patti's reporting on state initiatives to rein in interchange.

This week James & Patti interview industry attorneys James Huber and Matt Luciani on the proposed $30 billion legal settlement Visa and Mastercard just inked with retailers to make a longstanding lawsuit go away. Then James interviews uber-salesman Rich Norton on mastering the one-call close, and Patti reports on research into consumer and business payments preferences.

In this new age of integrated payments, point of sale systems, and ISVs, sales professionals are losing their edge. The key to growth is still closing business. In this episode, James shares 10 key characteristics of closers and breaks down the closers mindset. Optimize your own sales performance, or the performance of your sales team.

The Merchant Lifecycle - Future-Proofing Your Portfolio by Merchant Sales Podcast

Join James Shepherd, Ben Ross of Green Payments and Jeffrey Sanders Of Union POS to discuss the high volume venue opportunity. These include bars, food service, event venues and many others. During this event we will be sharing the keys to prospecting and selling these large venues and rolling out a free video training program James created in partnership with Green Payments and Union.

"Everyone is looking at monetizing payments," says Brian Abernethy of Utopaya. But you have to understand the tradeoffs. Plus James talks about prospecting ISVs and Patti has an update on the Fed's plan for capping debit interchange.

Selling point of sale systems has become a crucial component of a growing payments portfolio. But there are challenges! How do you know which system to offer? How do you demo complex systems and close deals? What does the installation process look like? For this event, I will be joined by Ben Ross of Green Payments to discuss these an other challenges related to selling point of sale systems in 20...

"It's not for everybody," explains Vigyan Kaushik, CEO at Quantic, a cloud-based POS solution firm. "Mostly it's for organizations that are looking to create brand awareness and sell something they own." Also this week, James offers some ground rules for focusing on growing a team and taking your company to the next level.